Video copy prevention systems with interaction and compression

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are systems and methods for providing video content while inhibiting the copying of that content for later viewing. Video images may be made difficult to copy for presentation at later times by the omission or addition of content developed in relation to the particular initial viewing. For instance, video information may be customized by omitting information that is not likely to be substantially perceived by the initial viewer but that is substantially likely to be perceived as missing by at least some other viewers. As another example, video information may be customized for a particular viewing instance so that it contains modified, selected or injected information that is likely to be perceived as non-disruptive or unnoticeable by the original viewer but that would be perceived as substantially noticeable and/or disruptive by some other viewers, including when parts of more than one such video information are combined in an effort to remove customization related to their respective original viewings. Various means and methods for accomplishing the forgoing in a variety of settings are disclosed including also for providing privacy related to what is viewed. In some examples higher-resolution images are provided for the region near the viewer&#39;s point-of-regard and lower resolution images are provided elsewhere, which also has the effect of reducing the bandwidth required. For interactive content rendered from digital models, a model for a central foveal region may be provide greater detail and have greater computational requirements than a model for a peripheral view, providing both economy/performance in rendering and protection against copying.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a National Phase Application and claims the priorityof International Application Number PCT/US2008/005387, filed on Apr. 25,2008, which claims the priority of United States Patent Application Nos.60/926,373, filed on Apr. 25, 2007, 60/927,261 filed on May 1, 2007,60/928,004 filed on May 7, 2007, 60/931,946 filed on May 25, 20087,60/993,789 filed on Aug. 14, 2007 and 61/002,569 filed on Nov. 10, 2007

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is directed at video systems and copy preventiongenerally, and more specifically at systems for increased efficiency andprotection against copying of video content.

2. Description of Prior Art

The present application claims priority from the following United StatesProvisional Applications, by the present applicant, that are herebyincluded by reference in their entirety:

U.S. 60/926,373 titled “Video Presentation and Copy Prevention Systems,”filed Apr. 25, 2007;

U.S. 60/927,261 titled “Video and Gaming Enhancement and Copy PreventionSystems, filed May 1, 2007;

U.S. 60/928,004 titled “Video and Interaction Enhancement and CopyPrevention Systems,” filed May 7, 2007;

U.S. 60/931,946 titled “Video Copy Prevention Systems with Interactionand Compression,” filed May 25, 2007;

U.S. 60/993,789 titled “Video Copy Prevention Systems with Interactionand Compression,” filed Sep. 14, 2007; and

U.S. 61/002,569 titled “Video Copy Prevention Systems with Interactionand Compression,” filed Nov. 10, 2007.

Substantial protection against copying of the content underlying theviewing experience is believed generally appreciated as of majorcommercial advantage and concern. Yet for such things as motion picturesand video games the systems currently offered have significantshortcomings. For instance, the security of various so-called “DRM”(Digital Rights Management) systems is frequently reported to becompromised. The present application includes among its objectspractical systems for improving such protection. Furthermore, DRMsystems have often required equipment that is inconvenient to anddisliked by viewers because it protects its own structure and secretsagainst access by viewers. Some DRM systems are also intrusive of viewerprivacy. The present application includes among its objects practicalsystems that inhibit useful copying while allowing viewers full accessto their own equipment and protection of privacy.

Motion pictures are known to rely on the fact that rapid switchingbetween static images creates the illusion of continuous motion; thepresent work is based in part on the known fact that rendering theviewer's points of regard in high-resolution creates the illusion ofoverall high-resolution. So-called “eye-tracking” and “foveateddisplays” are known that can realize the illusion of high-resolution. Insome aspects, substantially limited eye tracking resolution and displaysof fixed resolution are believed adequate to realize some of the copyprevention objectives. In other aspects, interactive video can berendered more efficiently when higher-resolution is needed only in afoveated portion. In other aspects protection is provided or enhanced bymeans other than eye tracking.

Prior art for so-called “eye tracking,” “gaze contingent,” and“foveated” displays is known. For instance, the book “Eye TrackingMethodology: Theory and Practice” by A. T. Duchowski, is included hereinby reference. Some such systems have been developed to reducetransmission and display bandwidth, such as by U.S. Pat. No. 6,252,989Geisler, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 7,075,553 US Patent application20060176951, Berman et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,959,450, Ritter et al, andthe references of and to it, all of which are hereby included herein.Other foveated display/viewing art is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No.6,985,158, Miller et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,351,335, Perlin, and thereferences of and to these, all of which are hereby included herein.

The present invention aims, accordingly and among other things, toprovide novel and improved video and related systems. Efficiency,viewing quality, copy-resistance, portability, and flexibility indistribution in such systems are important goals generally. Objects ofthe invention also include addressing all of the above mentioned as wellas providing practical, robust, efficient, low-cost methods and systems.All manner of apparatus and methods to achieve any and all of theforgoing are also included among the objects of the present invention.

Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will beappreciated when the present description and appended claims are read inconjunction with the drawing figurers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram for a single-user system is shown forexemplary embodiments in accordance with the teachings of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a combination block, system, schematic and plan diagram for asingle user and server system with display for an exemplary embodimentin accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a combination block, system, schematic and plan diagram for amultiple user and server system for an exemplary embodiment inaccordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a combination functional, block, schematic and cryptographicprotocol diagram for exemplary protected multi-resolution video datasystem embodiments in accordance with the teachings of the presentinvention.

FIG. 5 is a combination functional, block, schematic and cryptographicprotocol diagram for exemplary protected multi-resolution interactivevideo data system embodiments in accordance with the teachings of thepresent invention.

FIG. 6 is a combination functional, block, schematic and cryptographicprotocol diagram for exemplary privacy and access protected systemembodiment in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a combination functional, block, schematic and cryptographicprotocol diagram for exemplary privacy protected authenticator systemembodiment in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a combination block, system, schematic, plan, flow andtimeline diagram for a single user and server system with display for anexemplary temporary blindness aspect embodiment in accordance with theteachings of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a combination block, system, schematic and plan diagram for apeer key management viewing system in an exemplary embodiment inaccordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a combination block, system, schematic and plan diagram for amulti-viewer inset system in an exemplary embodiment in accordance withthe teachings of the present invention.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This section introduces some of the inventive concepts, in a way thatwill readily be appreciated through making significant simplificationsand omissions for clarity and should not be taken to limit their scopein any way; the next section presents a more general view.

Video images may be made difficult to copy for presentation at latertimes or to other persons by the omission or addition of contentdeveloped in relation to the particular initial viewing instance. Forinstance, video information may be customized by omitting informationthat is not likely to be substantially perceived by the viewer of theinitial instance but that is substantially likely to be perceived asmissing by at least some other viewers. As another example, videoinformation may be customized by for a particular viewing instance sothat it contains modified, selected or injected information that islikely to be perceived as non-disruptive or unnoticeable by the viewerin the particular instance but that would be perceived as substantiallynoticeable and/or disruptive by some other viewers, including when partsof more than one such video information are combined in an effort toremove customization related to their respective original viewinginstances.

As just one example for concreteness, a first viewer is provided with avideo that shows the regions that viewer is fixates on in highresolution and the regions that user does not fixate on in lowerresolution. A second viewer is provided with a rendering ofsubstantially the same video content with the regions that viewerfixates on in high resolution and the rest in low resolution. If thisprocess were to be repeated enough times, all regions of the video mighteventually be disclosed in high resolution. These could then be stitchedtogether by viewers or those accessing the viewing system to form acomplete high-resolution copy of the video, which might be undesirablefrom the perspective of the creator of the video. One example solutionto this would be to prevent so many viewings by any one group ofviewers. Another example would be to change some or all of the videos sothat, while they are self-consistent, they are each different enoughthat simply combining them would produce a noticeable and undesirableversion and that trying to remove the differences may be substantiallydifficult. Each instance of the vide might, for example, be renderedfrom a different perspective or with a different color scheme. In someexamples higher-resolution images are provided for the region near theviewer's point-of-regard and lower resolution images are providedelsewhere, which also has the effect of reducing the bandwidth required.For interactive content rendered from digital models, a model for afoveal region may be provide greater detail and have greatercomputational requirements than a model for a peripheral view, providingboth economy in rendering and protection against copying.

General Description

This section introduces some of the inventive concepts related to thespirit of the present invention so that they may be more readilyappreciated, but makes simplifications and omissions for clarity andshould not be taken to limit the scope of the invention in any way.Video without user interaction is considered first, then video with userinteraction.

Known is coding of data provided for viewing that includeshigher-resolution for what will be called a “foveal” regions portionsand substantially lower-resolution for other what will be called“peripheral” regions or portions or backgrounds of a video image. Eyetracking is used in some examples so that foveal data is rendered aslight directed at and incident on the foveal region of at least oneviewer retina.

In one inventive aspect, restricting access to limited instances of suchfoveal data is believed generally to inhibit the making of copiescomparable in terms of experience offered to an original viewing thatincludes the particular foveal regions as they are visited by thefixations of the particular viewer. It is believed that so restrictingmakes it difficult for persons with only a limited collection of suchinstances to make copies that are substantially better than in effectthe lower-resolution peripheral image, at least in many portions of theoverall image, and that in many circumstances such copies wouldconsequently appear to be illicit copies or otherwise less desirable.For example, a second viewer attempting to view a copy of the video datashown to a first viewer is believed to at least potentially havedifferent and/or differently-timed so-called “saccade” rapid eyemovements and related foveal “points of regard” or “fixations” that willusually line up neither spatially nor temporally with those of the copy;differing foveal inset detail when the point of regard differs will itis believed readily be noticeable and degrade at least the perceivedquality of the copy and omitting the detail it is believed will yieldsubstantially the background peripheral resolution.

In some inventive examples, a remote server provides control to limitthe number of different viewing instances that would be available tothose seeking to create illicit copies, such as by limiting the count ofinstances served and/or is related to the extent of coverage afforded bythe data provided in such instances served. In some examples, the set orsets of recipients of the data having substantially complete data istracked and/or controlled. In some such systems different recipients ofdata are modeled differently by analysis and decision systems, such asby level of trustworthiness and/or likely collusion with particularother recipients. Thus such systems for restrictive distribution canlimit exposure to various threats statically or adaptively and alsodevelop information related to the details or extent of the threats.

Other types of limitation of data beyond two regions with differingresolution are anticipated. Restrictions on data in some examplesconform more particularly to distribution of intensity sensing and colorsensing rods and cones of the retina (including the dark spot), and thetemporal/integrative character of these sensing structures, forparticular viewers and/or viewers more generally. Such a potentiallymore generally limited image pattern, whether dynamic or static, will bereferred to here as at least a type of “foveal inset.”

In another aspect, the overall view data provided to viewers for a sceneis preferably what will be called here “diversified” so that differentinstances of the video will have different insets corresponding to whatwould be the same or related inset location in the original video. Someexamples of kinds of such diversification include perspective, cropping,projection, alignment, color, temporal, focus distance, depth of field,and the blind spot where the optic nerve is located. These various typesof diversification of an inset will be taken for clarity here to becharacterized by “parameters” of the diversification. Each such exampleaspect listed above may accordingly be characterized by one or more suchparameters and a particular assignment of values to such parameterswould preferably substantially determine an inset.

Diversification parameters, at least in some examples, are adaptivelyselected to impede a user or collections of users from piecing togetherfoveal insets to form a substantially acceptable higher-resolution videoor foveal region creation capability, such as one of substantiallyhigher overall resolution than the peripheral regions of the original.For example, if a single user views a video repeatedly, then theparameters for a particular scene would preferably differ per viewing,so as to impede compositing the insets together by that user to producea high-quality video. (A viewer watching the same scenes over and overand exhibiting similar fixations, however, is optionally provided thesame diversification, limiting the flow of information to that user.) Asanother example, the same diversification parameter configurations areoptionally distributed among multiple users for economy. But the patternof users preferably is such as to require substantial, such asgeographically dispersed and not apparently coordinated, collusion torecover substantially coherent collections of data. Such distributionsare also preferably varied per aggregation, such as video scene or thelike, to make a complete performance even more difficult for a collusionto composite.

In theater settings, as yet another example, viewers are preferablysynchronized temporally per performance while other parameters arediversified across the audience; while across performances even temporalaspects such as speed of play and cuts are optionally diversified.Peripheral images in some examples are shared among substantially localviewers with synchronized timing. However, some diversification changesthe peripheral image as well as the insets. This is optionally achievedby local processing according to parameters supplied to it, such as forperformance reasons, even though it may mean high-resolution copies arenot quite as difficult to make; however, re-rendering sufficient insets,assuming they can be obtained, to make the parameters consistent for ascene with any peripheral image is believed substantially difficultand/or costly in some cases even if the differences in peripheral imageparameters are known. The peripheral images preferably contain limitedresolution, allowing some lack of precision in their description, andthey do not necessarily perceptibly include all parameters, such as forinstance stereo.

The “points of interest,” such as likely fixation points in a videosequence, have a representation in the peripheral rendering. It isbelieved that research publications such as “Visual memory for naturalscenes: Evidence from change detection and visual search,” by AndrewHollingworth, in Visual Cognition, 2006, 14:4, pp. 781-807, suggest thatif the peripheral representation of a point of regard differs enoughfrom the corresponding high-resolution inset rendered during fixation, asignificant probability exists that the viewer will notice. Accordingly,and to the extent true, the points of interest in a scene's peripheralview are preferably rendered to correspond with substantially differentinsets per diversification and even to change such distribution ofinsets per inter-saccade interval until the point of interest becomes apoint of regard. This preferably ensures that each actual fixation isprovided with an inset that matches at least its previous correspondingperipheral rendering. It is also believed that each fixation insetdetail should remain substantially unchanged for a particular viewer.Thus, since a viewer sees a matching fixation inset and always arepeated inset, no errors are detected during proper use by the viewer.

An adversary attempting to amass a complete set of insets per likely orsubstantially all fixation points, however, is believed to be at adisadvantage. One example reason is that the peripheral views willsubstantially differ from whatever minimized set of fixation insets isselected for use by the adversary and the fixation peripheral renderingswill need to be corrected (and even with diversification) in order toavoid viewers of the composite stream sensing mismatch between thefixation destination peripheral and inset views.

It will be appreciated that there are believed potential practicallimits to the protection that can be achieved by such systems generallywithout user interaction. For instance in some sense any viewer cantypically gain enough information to create anew a substantiallytechnically-separate but conceptual “knock off” of a video. A verysophisticated copying effort may attempt to create a model, such a 3Danimation model, and it may be able to integrate each additional pieceof data, particularly if the parameters of the data can be parsed andthis may even be with human assistance. In view of these considerations,the present invention is directed, at least in some aspects, atincreasing the difficulty of obtaining fragments that are more readilycombined. (In an interactive system, however, various logic andunderlying models are preferably held back from direct capture.)

In a related aspect, techniques are disclosed for influencing viewerbehavior in a way aimed at enhanced protection by affecting thedistribution and diversity of foveal insets. As an example, it is knownthat a significant change in image at a point in the peripheral regionmay attract a saccade to that point, but removing the changesubstantially before the fixation has settled on it can keep thestimulus from being perceived by the viewer. Such techniques areanticipated as a way to cause a greater diversity of fixation pointsthan might occur naturally and/or to help detect or impede efforts topump common or sought-after foveal insets out of the system. They areoptionally also used to direct the gaze at points for which inset datais readily available locally to improve speed of response. (In someinteractive systems, to be described, it is believed that suchtechniques can reduce the duration of fixations, which can beadvantageous where models allowing change responsive to users inputs areprovided, because the longevity of the models and what they disclose isreduced.)

In yet another aspect, latency generally between point of regardprediction or determination and availability for display of fovealinsets is a known issue, potentially more so when saccade and hencetolerable latency are shorter, and depending on network and othersubsystem performance. Accordingly, various pre-fetching of images isanticipated as is sending data more than one time and in more than oneway and in various potentially at least partly redundant parts that canbe combined to recover particular images needed. However, so as to limitdisclosure of data, encryption of separate parts of the data underseparate keys is preferably used. Since the keys are substantiallysmaller than the data, they are believed more rapidly sent and arepotentially sent with greater redundancy in sending with lesstransmission and quality of service cost compared to the encryptedpre-fetch data. Thus, latency is reduced by sending encrypted datasubstantially in advance and as the need is anticipated and thenpreferably rapidly revealing the keys needed to access the data onlywhen the probability that it will be needed is high enough.

In a further aspect, substantial tamper indicating or tamper resistance,difficult-to-reverse-engineer or tamper-responsive devices and the likeare well known in the area of protecting digital content and willgenerally be referred to here as “protected” devices. Although thepresent systems aim at least in part to avoid the need to rely on suchan approach exclusively in many applications, it is anticipated thatsuch an approach can be included to provide additional advantage in someapplications and may be relied on in others. In one example a protecteddevice is entrusted with some further fixation insets/keys than areprovided to a less trusted user device/system. Examples of such secondtier data include so-called “parafoveal” or “macular” regions and/oranticipated or short saccade distance points of regard. In anotherexample, a protected device may be provided to a semi-trusted entity andthen recovered or inspected and it may be adapted to erase its keysbefore power down and if it does not hear from a central devicesufficiently while powered up.

In an aspect related to latency and protected devices, a network ofdevices, whether and to what extent protected, cooperates in the supplyof image data to a viewer device. For instance, peers of a viewingdevice, being other such devices substantially local to the particularviewer, are provided inset images for low-latency access. Such devicescoordinate among themselves preemptively and/or after the fact, andcommunicate with one or more servers, in order to prevent the leaking oftoo much to the viewer device and/or to detect such leaking or attemptsto get more data than a single viewer would be expected to need.Protected devices are anticipated to cooperate in such ways as well.Moreover, adaptive systems analyzing risks can monitor, attempt toinfluence, and control the access to insets of such collaborationstructures.

In another aspect related to latency, local or substantially localcopies of data in encrypted form are anticipated. In some examples suchdata is in the form of a portable data carrier medium, such as a disc orsolid-state device; in other examples, it is in the form of a local“server” like device that stores the content and serves it up to one ormore entities. In such cases, the data stored is preferably encryptedunder separate keys per aspect that would be released to the viewer,such as per inset image and/or background image and/or key frame and/ordifference frames. The keys are supplied preferably online from atrusted server, such as operated by the content provider. For so-called“in flight entertainment,” portable players or built-in players areknown. Other settings where multiple viewers can be provided with keysfrom a local server are anticipated, such as theaters, events orexhibitions. In such settings, where viewing devices have protectedstructure, they preferably retain keys in a volatile and/oractively-erased memory and only while in communication with the server.

So-called video games are known to be a major market and are impacted byperceived resolution of images displayed as well as by so-called“piracy” concerns. To the extent that a video game experience includessegments where the player is substantially passive, those aspectsalready described for videos are readily applied. But for thoseinstances when the player provides input to the game through so-called“controls,” substantially rapid responses by the display is believeddesired in many instances.

So-called smooth pursuit movements of the eyes are known and generallybelieved to be substantially slower than saccades and are often used totrack moving objects/images. In some exemplary embodiments suchslowly-moving images are allowed and insets are extended to accommodatethem. In other examples, slow motion of images that are likely points ofregard are omitted from content and/or when the eye is seen to be movingslowly stimulation is provided to induce saccade away.

In one inventive aspect, a so-called model is downloaded to the gamedevice for the background image and a second model for a particularinset. Such models, for instance, are programmatically and/orparametrically and/or by including one or more images/textures, providea way for the gaming device to compute and render the respective regionsresponsive to the passage of time and/or control inputs by players. Suchmodels are modified and/or replaced, responsive to the passage of timeand/or control inputs by the players, by one or more protected or remotedevices such as servers. In another inventive aspect, multiple alternateimages are provided to the gaming station and which image should bedisplayed responsive to which control inputs is also provided orimplicit. Thus, by refreshing the peripheral and/or the inset image setsfrequently enough so that substantially timely images are available forrendering, substantial local modeling is obviated. Various combinationsof these aspects are anticipated, depending on the setting. Forinstance, an enduring peripheral model combined with inset imageassortments can provide rapid and smooth response generally and limitthe amount of data to be downloaded and the detail of the modelsdisclosed to the gaming device. As another example, games can takeadvantage of knowing the points of regard, such as by the feedback theygive players, for instance that a virtual being in the game may appearto be cognizant of the point of regard, such as by looking where theplayer is looking, staring back, or explicitly mentioning or relating tothe player's gaze. Furthermore, players can be encouraged to keep movingthe point of gaze, such as a defensive measure, by corresponding rewardsfor continual scanning or penalties for lingering gaze.

In a another inventive aspect, privacy of viewers is of course a verysignificant concern in many settings. One approach to enhancing privacyis by using such protected devices to act at least in part locally inthe interest of the user. For instance, such a device hides exactlywhich of several points of regard relate to a particular user sessionand even which of several videos are viewed. Another and potentiallycomplementary approach relates to so-called “private informationretrieval” techniques. For instance, viewer equipment and/or protectedequipment hides the particular foveal inset it requests from among a setof potential such insets.

In still a further inventive aspect, the so-called “vergence” anglebetween the eyes is generally known to vary with the distance focusedon. The three-dimensional effect in viewing is believed enhanced and/oran additional parameter to differentiate insets is provided by varyingthe sharpness/blur associated with distance differences in a 3D model.Thus, generally, in the embodiments contemplated herein, the ability tomeasure vergence and adjust focus accordingly is preferably included toenhance the perception of a realistic three dimensional experience.Moreover, the vergence of a user/viewer can be regarded generally asfurther input akin to point of regard and blink intervals that can helpmake each instance rendered different from others to increase thedifficulty of combining them to circumvent copy protection. So-calleddepth of field is also a parameter potentially varied, toenhance/diminish the effect and/or to provide an additional parameterfor diversifying insets.

Imaging of patterns whose overall reflectance differs recognizably whenaligned correctly with the retina, such as patterns that are in effect aphotograph of the retina, can be used to develop and ensurehigh-accuracy of registration between the modeled retina and the retinareflecting the light. Of course there is privacy related information insuch a technique, though it need never leave the local alignmentfeedback loop. In another example, it can be used to limit viewing tocertain users with only local protected structures. Such a retina imagecapability can of course also be used for identification of viewers.Such identification data is preferably kept locally, or by protectedstructures as mentioned that at least in part protect user interests.

One exemplary configuration is a display of conventional resolutioncoupled with an eye tracker, such as are commercially available. Aprotected or remote mechanism provides the inset; the peripheral imageis stored locally. As an example, a three-dimensional animation isrendered with substantially different point-of-view for each scene andshowing.

Another exemplary configuration is where each viewer is provided withso-called “virtual-reality goggles” that include eye tracker andpreferably do not prevent viewing the surroundings. Viewers are able toparticipate socially, as the timing of the video or the multi-playergame is the same, but each is able to view the other local participantsas well.

In some inventive aspects, “temporary blindness” of a viewer is detectedand exploited to inhibit use of copied content. For example, it isbelieved that when a viewer blinks, the viewer sees substantially littleof the image presented. Such blinking is believed detectable, such as bycamera and/or change in IR retroreflection of the eye. In someinstances, the viewer holds the eyes closed for a longer period than ablink, such as voluntarily or dozing off. Another example of temporaryblindness resulting from the viewers physical motion is that which isgenerally regarded to occur during the interval of a saccade, which aredescribed including detection of the same elsewhere here. Detectingsaccades is believed to require substantially less costly and/orcumbersome hardware and/or software than substantially accuratelydetermining the point of gaze/regard and/or the direction of a saccade.In still other examples, the viewer may look away from the screen ordefocus. Detecting such off-image gaze is believed also more readilyaccomplished than accurate fixation point tracking, particularly whenthe degree of off-image or threshold for gaze to be considered off-imagefor such purposes is substantially large. Measures that take advantageof at least some temporary blindness intervals are an aspect of suchsystems that can be combined with other aspects described elsewherehere.

Detecting a temporary blindness and providing images (or the lackthereof) responsive to such detected intervals can to some extentinhibit use of a copy of the viewing experience. In one example, anessentially blank and/or gray level of comparable average intensity orspectral distribution to the preceding image is provided at least for aportion of the interval. It is believed preferable that the intensity ofsuch a blank, or in some example optional configurations very-lowresolution image, morphs or changes gradually to the average levelpresent at the end of the interval in the actual image. This is believedto provide advantages including, for instance, a less disruptive lightlevel that may be seen by others in the vicinity and/or to provide lackof alarm to the viewer that may be perceived because the temporaryblindness is not absolute.

In other examples, the type of image provided during a temporaryblindness is intended to alert a viewer of a copy that what is beingviewed is such a copy and/or to inconvenience or distract such a viewerin such case. In one exemplary embodiment what will be called a“recognizable indication,” such as for instance a message in text, icon,symbol, or other symbolic form is inserted into the image during theblindness interval. One example of such a recognizable indication is atext message, such as for instance “this is an unauthorized copy,” “thiscopy was provided to John Jones,” or “report the source of this illegalcopy for a reward to www.reportacopy.org.” Another example of such anindication is as a substantially distinctive or recognizable symbol,color, visual pattern, motion pattern, logo, or whatever brandidentifier or the like associated with improperly-made copies. Furtherexample indications include images that are inappropriate, disruptive,or even disturbing to potential viewers of an illicit copy. Instead ofor in addition to the above mentioned examples being applied tosubstantially an overall image, anticipated is an indication by a changethat serves to draw attention and regard by the viewer to a particularregion or area with one or more of the example changes substantiallylocated or highlighted in that area. It will be appreciated that asimple standard image inserted during a blind interval is more readilyrecognized automatically and edited or changed than images chosen from alarger repertoire, blended in with the original video, or even providedas a kind of distortion of the original video. Making it substantiallydifficult or costly to reliably detect and remove such segmentsautomatically is a potential goal. Generally, all manner of degradationand/or false or annoying images are anticipated as potentially includedduring such intervals.

Various other examples are anticipated. For instance, the images arealtered during temporary blindness to include changes to the contentthat are substantially difficult to detect automatically to provide akind of watermarking function that can be seen if looked for. Anotherexample, for instance, is that the temporary blindness interval is usedto download additional data to improve performance and/or to be used tofill other such intervals. In still another example, for instance, thepoint at which a scene cuts or the rate of change of a pan or zoom orthe like is varied during the interval from what it would have beenotherwise.

It is anticipated that someone wishing to make a copy of a video streammay arrange to have two or more different streams with different blinkand saccade timings so that, by simply splicing them, a complete streamcan be obtained without any indication intervals. Without knowing theblinking and saccade timings, which might be calculated by asubstantially tamper resistant device for instance, the maker of anillicit copy would have to detect such intervals and hidden aspects ofthem as mentioned. Even when such intervals are identified, in whateverway, however, by combining some other exemplary aspects mentionedelsewhere here, the viewing intervals from the different streams may, atleast with some substantial probability, be incompatible with eachother. Examples, as will be appreciated, include when the viewingintervals of the different streams are provided with different cameraangles, zoom, color balance, peripheral points of interest, etc. theywill produce a poor quality stream when inter-cut. A server optionallyalso may look at the blink and/or saccade timing reported and determineif it is credible and/or what combinations of streams to provide. Theseare particularly suited to settings such as where there is a viewer perrendering.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Detailed descriptions are presented here sufficient to allow those ofskill in the art to use the exemplary preferred embodiments of theinventive concepts.

Turning now to FIG. 1, an overall block diagram for a single-user systemis shown for exemplary embodiments in accordance with the teachings ofthe present invention. What may variously be called a user, viewer orperson 101 is shown in cooperation with the rest of the system. Videoimages or the like are made visible to the user by image means 102, suchas by screens, projectors, heads-up display, projection onto the retina,direct connection to the brain, or whatever means for making imagesperceptible to user 101. Information about one or both of the person'seyes, such as eye rotation, blinking, pupil diameter, head orientation,and/or related data, is captured by sensor system 103. The user 101 isprovided optional input facility 104, such as including mechanicalinputs like buttons, levers, touch surfaces, video capture of gestures,biofeedback sensors, voluntary eye tracking input, and so forth. It willbe appreciated that any or all of these devices or systems may be usedin whatever multiplicity and be arranged in whatever manner spatiallyand/or temporally.

Controller, local equipment, or thin client 105 interfaces to display102, sensor 103 and input means 104. It may in some examples be asubstantially general purpose computing platform or other device that issubstantially under the control of user 101 or more generally not offerprotection for the video content and user input that it receives. Inother examples it may be protected by tamper resistance, such as tamperindicating and/or tamper responding and/or barriers and/or complexstructure, so that it offers some degree of protection of the data thatit may have access to. Content supply 106 is any system means or methodfor providing video images to controller 105, whether it is local to theviewer 101 or remote from viewer 101 or comprised of a combination ofwhatever combination of equipment and procedures at whatever distancesfrom user 101.

In operation, in a simplified example for concreteness and clarity inexposition as will be appreciated, controller 105 provides content toviewer 101 through display 102 responsive to inputs from sensors 103 andinput means 104. Supply 106, responsive to input from controller 105,provides content to controller 105. It is believed that supply 106 isable to provide video in a way that substantially increases what isrequired to re-create or copy the video by those with access tocontroller 105 and/or sensor 103, display 102 and/or input 104, whetherthat access includes tapping of information and/or active injection ofor alteration of information. In one exemplary non-limiting aspect,video information may be customized by supply 106 for a particularviewing instance so that it omits information that is not likely to besubstantially perceived by viewer 101 but that is substantially likelyto be perceived as missing by at least some other viewers. In anothernon-limiting exemplary aspect, video information may be customized bysupply 106 for a particular viewing instance so that it containsmodified, selected or injected information that is likely to beperceived as non-disruptive or unnoticeable by viewer 101 in theparticular instance but that would be perceived as substantiallynoticeable and/or disruptive by some other viewers, including when partsof more than one such video information are combined in an effort toremove customization related to their respective original viewinginstances. The combination of customization techniques, includingomission of information and/or modified and/or selected and/or injectedinformation will be called “differentiated” herein. Audio and/or tactileand/or olfactory and/or other sensory inputs for user 101 are alsooptionally provided by supply 106 through controller 105 to user 101through means not shown for clarity.

As will be appreciated, for interactive content rendered from digitalmodels, a model for a foveal region may be provide greater detail andhave greater computational requirements than a model for a peripheralview, providing both economy in rendering and protection againstcopying.

Turning to FIG. 2, a combination block, system, schematic and plandiagram for a single user and server system with display is shown for anexemplary embodiment in accordance with the teachings of the presentinvention. As will be appreciated, the configuration includes knownprior art structures, such as user 101 and cooperating eye tracker 202,a display 203 with a peripheral image 204 and foveal inset 205, and oneor more servers 206 that sends data to the local “user” system 207 overa channel 208. Audio transducer means 209, such as loudspeakers,headphones, ear buds, or the like are shown for playing the audio aspectof the video, which is included implicitly in much of the disclosurehere as it is little impacted apart from the “time shifting” mentioned.However, other structure and steps are shown and anticipated as well.For instance, the server 206 stores keys and it encrypts dataselectively with keys before supplying the data to the user systems 207and the user system 207 stores the encrypted data and the user systemhas decryption capability and selectively decrypts those items of datafor which keys have been received responsive to requests for insets thatit makes to the server over the channel 208. In some examples,substantial data that anticipates contingencies that do not occur endsup being sent by the server 206 but for which keys are not released. Insome examples the protected structure shown as part of the user system207 receives the keys from the server 206 and handles them according toinstructions and procedures (which optionally may be updated) fromserver 206. The protected structure may supply the keys to unprotectedstructure for decryption of stored images, including optionallyperipheral region images 204. The protected structure optionallyprovides privacy protection by not revealing certain types of data toserver 206, such as retina patterns, viewing details, and payment andauthorization functions. In other exemplary embodiments, for example,user equipment 207 projects directly into the eye, is portable, is avery light-weight client, is integrated with other platforms, isintegrated with the display, is integrated with the eye-tracker 202, isa general purpose computer, is a network appliance, is an entertainmentappliance, is worn by users, and/or is hidden within user regalia. Inthe example application of a video game or the like, a user control 104shown provides for various input from user 101 during a session andtypically user system 207 is responsive to such input, such as bychanging the model displayed or changing between pre-rendered imagessupplied, and/or combinations of these optionally responsive toprocedures for this supplied and as mentioned.

Turning now to FIG. 3, a combination block, system, schematic and plandiagram for a multiple user and server system is shown for an exemplaryembodiment in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.The multiplicity of some of the elements already described, including byreference to FIG. 2, are illustrated. In particular, an Internet type ofcommunication structure 306, such as based on packet switching, is shownconnecting various service components represented by one or morecomputer resources termed servers for clarity. The per-user structure issimilar to that already described with reference to FIG. 2 for a singleuser. One aspect illustrated specifically is multiple viewers 101 a-c,such as in a theater or other space sharing common audio. It isanticipated that they can also share common peripheral video displaymeans 203 (not shown here for clarity) while having individual fovealdisplays 308, such as by the so-called “heads up” partly-silvered mirrorapproach, which incorporate eye observation generally and eye trackingas a particular example. Coupling of user equipment 207 a-b, sometimescalled “peer to peer” or just a home network is also shown, as well aswireless networking and portable devices 307. As mentioned, to improvelatency and reliability, to increase the collusion size needed, toincrease the number of protected devices that would need to becompromised, and for economy in transmission, copies of some insets mayexist locally on other machines and a machine wishing to render themwould be instructed, such as by the control server instance, of whereand how to obtain them. A known technique applicable here is that suchpeers or various levels of servers or local data centers supply linearcombinations of encrypted insets, allowing for robust distribution in aless coordinated manner.

An image server(s) 302 optionally stores pre-rendered backgrounds andinsets and/or computes them on demand from models or data stored. Itwill be appreciated that multiple sets of image servers (e.g. 302 b-c)are anticipated, some examples of which are shown, each optionallycomprising multiple servers but each preferably under controlsubstantially of the owner or custodian of the content. This allows thatentity to ensure that only the insets requested are rendered/supplied,and that this is only done with the corresponding agreement/accountingand encryption called for. Control server 303 is intended to manage acentral function of key management to the various user systems 101 a-cand protected components in a substantially centralized manner so as toprovide interoperability for the several content supplying entities 302a-c already described. A kind of surveillance system or analysis server304 to look for fraud and patterns that may reveal misuse is shown alsoas a global function. As another example type of server, any of whichcan be combined or split as will be appreciated, accounts and paymentsserver(s) 305 handle optional payments and authorizations for access tovideo content. A further example is key server 309 that suppliescryptographic key material, such as for decrypting content parts by usersystems, as will be described also in more detail later.

Some example kinds of diversification of images/video have already beenmentioned, such as perspective, cropping, alignment, color, temporal,focus distance, depth of field, and blind spot. Perspective is a mappingthat includes the choice of projection and point of view. If the videois 3D, the viewer's virtual position in effect can change as can thedegree of fish eye or other projection of the view, for example. Evenwhen viewing is not 3D, such as a plain eye tracker screen, as arecommercially available from Tobii, in Stockholm Sweden, the underlyingimages can be re-rendered with different perspectives, particularly if a3D model is known or re-created. Flat images are optionally “projected,”such as by scaling, cropping, and other transformations, to create oneor more diversification parameters. The whole image can be aligneddifferently by shifting in the cropping window and the shape of theinset varied. The general color balance or level or even coloration ofvarious objects or features can be changed to create diversificationalong such parameters. Where the focal plane is and the depth of fieldare known parameters in photography, and each can be varied to createdifferent images. Another type of diversification is using a piece ofvideo in some versions that is not included in other versions: piecingtogether in such cases is believed to mean getting enough pieces from atleast one version. Time can be sped up or slowed down, with knowntechniques applied to make such changes tolerable in audio, such asremoving samples.

In another aspect, matching the information revealed to what is neededcan reduce its utility to those who would seek to make illicit copies.The optic nerve creates a blind spot on the retina; no image need besupplied for this spot. Rather than a diversification, blanking thislocation punches a hole in a substantially high resolution part of theimage and creates an obstacle to piecing together of images. Other shapeand graded distribution of the foveated part and the related mediumdensity parts and the color sensitivity mean that piecing together ismore difficult than the use of a rectangular foveal inset as arebelieved primarily used in the art. As another example, some personshave less than perfect vision, whether it be color blindness of varioustypes or lack of acuity in one or both eyes. If these limitations areknown or ascertained, then they allow further information to be omittedfrom some images released.

Turning now to FIG. 4, a combination functional, block, schematic andcryptographic protocol diagram is shown for exemplary protectedmulti-resolution video data system embodiments in accordance with theteachings of the present invention. A more general view is provided inFIG. 4A and a more detailed view of an example of data sequencing isprovided in FIG. 4B. Communication between two parts of the system, theclient and server, are shown; additionally, FIG. 4A shows cooperationbetween each of the two parts and other exemplary parts of the system.

Referring more specifically to FIG. 4A now, the client side 401 forexample is hardware and/or software systems used by the viewer in theprocess of viewing the video content. The server side 402 is showntaking input from a data store 403 that secures keys and optionallyvideo content related data. In some examples, this includesfull-resolution clips that comprise the video and/or redundant clipsand/or underlying models of the data to facilitate diversification asalready explained. The client side is shown supplying video and/or audioand/or stereo and/or 3 d information to the “display” means 404 orsystem that provides input to the user or users of the system. Theclient side is also shown taking input from a gaze trackingmeans/subsystem 405. The client is further shown also optionally using alocal store 406 of image data. Such data is optionally labeled by a“data ID” and/or a so-called “data-des,” short for data description. Itwill be appreciated that a description and an ID can be similar and/orone can be computed or limited by the other. In one direction, knowingthe location on the screen and the time during a segment that a videoportion should play in some examples identifies the data; in otherexamples, there are plural such items, however, each user may only haveone. In another direction, an identifier for a video portion optionallyincludes an indication of, or allows checking of, directly or indirectlythrough other sources, the place in the video stream such content fits.The client is shown taking input from local image data and dataID and/ordescription data as an option. One use of such an option is where suchdata is recorded on a data transport media or downloaded or supplied bya peering network to the user. Some such data optionally is notencrypted; however, some foveal data in the system is preferably notprovided except on demand at least in decrypted form and may optionallybe stored or locally available in encrypted form. In some examples thedata is sent to the client, such as by the server, and stored locally orcached for later use, and this is shown by the arrow in the oppositedirection.

A first message type is shown transmitted by the client and received bythe server and comprising two sorts of data, at least implicitly. Thefirst sort of data is gaze status and/or prediction data, which willalso here be called “gaze characterization data.” For example, such datarelates to where the user or users of the system are looking at thedisplayed data and/or historically where such gaze has been as afunction of time, and/or a characterization of the direction or locationto which such a gaze is expected to change to. So-called vergenceinformation, related to the relative angle between the eyes, ispreferably included in some examples as part of the gaze information andin a similar way. The second sort of data relates to time. For example,it indicates the time, such as absolute or relative, at which the gazedata was collected and/or sent and/or the interval over which it relateshistorically, and/or when a fixation is predicted to occur and/or howurgently the message needs to be delivered and/or processed.

A second message type is shown transmitted by the server and received bythe client and comprising two sorts of data, at least implicitly, and anoptional sort of data. The first sort of data relates to cryptographickeys and the like. Such data is preferably at least not readilyguessable by the receiver and thereby provides the receiver additionalability to decrypt data that has been encrypted in a corresponding way,such as by the sender. The second sort of data is optional and shown asthe data description, as already described; it characterizes the datafor which the key(s) should assist in the decryption process and/or whatdata should be included along with such decrypted data. Again the otherexemplary sort of data relates to time. For example, it indicates thetime or relative time at which the key is to be used.

A third message type is optional and is shown transmitted by the serverand received by the client and comprising two sorts of data. Such dataoptionally is already present, in whole or in part, at the client sideas already described. The first sort of data relates to image data ormodels or assets or components or the like. Such data is preferablyencrypted when it is sent in advance of when it will be used and when itis not generally known. The second sort of data is optional and shown asthe data description, as already described; it characterizes the data,such as the keys that should be used to decrypt the data and/or whatdata should be included along with such decrypted data and/or when thedata should be displayed and/or where the data should be displayed.

Referring now to FIG. 4B, a somewhat arbitrary example with somespecific data is included for concreteness and to aid understanding aswill be appreciated but without any limitation whatsoever. Client side401 and server side 402 are again shown. Actual arbitrary messageexamples between them are shown. The messages are shown as diagonallines sloping down as they travel away from the sender, so as to conveythe latency in the channel between the two entities. It will beunderstood that the two processes, that of the client and that of theserver, can be considered as sending streams of data and receivingstreams from the respective counterparty, as is illustrated explicitlyhere.

The arbitrary concrete example stream from the client includes packetsor messages that give updates on gaze information with implicit orexplicit timing. These are shown at substantially unpredictableintervals, such as when a so-called ballistic saccade trajectory isdetected, when its end point can be calculated, and/or when it actuallyends. The timing component indicates when the packet was sent,optionally how urgent it is, and what period of time it relates to.

The arbitrary concrete example stream from the server includes severalsorts of messages. A first message shown provides, in a first component,a key for decrypting some video content identified in a secondcomponent, and provides the particular relative interval during thevideo during which the content is to be played. A second messageprovides background data, sometimes referred to as peripheral images,and associates an identifier with the particular data. Such data in someembodiments is provided in the clear as it is background data, in otherembodiments it is provided in encrypted form and in still other examplesit is not sent but provided locally. The third datagram provides a key,data description of the particular data to be decrypted with the key,and the time during which that segment should be included in the video.The fourth message, an optional one as the data may be known locally,includes foreground and/or background information, identification of thedata, and the data is optionally in encrypted form or not as alreadydescribed. The fifth example shows keys and identification of the datato be decrypted and when in the video to include the data. The sixthmessage is an optional one like the fourth message, as the data may beavailable locally. It provides foreground data and a data description ofwhere such data is to be included in the stream. The particular timingis included along with the key or is otherwise implicit. The seventhmessage illustrates a key, the identifier of the data, which was fromthe second message, and the time to play the data.

Turning now to FIG. 5, a combination functional, block, schematic andcryptographic protocol diagram is shown for exemplary protectedmulti-resolution interactive video data system embodiments in accordancewith the teachings of the present invention. Communication between twoparts of the system, the client and server, are shown; additionallyshown is cooperation between each of the two parts and other exemplaryparts of the system.

Client side 401 is shown communicating with four subsystems. The display404 output and gaze 405 tracking input to client side 401 aresubstantially as already described for these subsystems with referenceto FIG. 4A. Additionally, shown are one or more player control inputs501. In some examples, these are simply a typical computer pointingdevice, such as mouse/touchscreen/pad and/or keyboard, that usersprovide input with. In other examples it is a game controller. In stillother examples, it is all manner of virtual reality cues from the userthat are intended to affect the displayed data and/or state of play ofthe game/session. The image data and related data already described withreference to FIG. 4A is generalized as model elements and/or rules 502that are, in the example, broken down into whether they apply to theforeground or the background. For each such element, or for relevantstructures of such elements, identifiers and/or data descriptions areprovided and stored.

Server side 402 is shown have three subsystems from which it can drawinformation. The first subsystem is key data secure store 503, such asis typical and which provides management and processing related to keysas is known. Server side 402 in the example has access through a secondsubsystem to the overall model for the game 504. This presumablyincludes such things as the various elements, shading, geometries,lighting, textures, and so for the known in the animated model art.Server side 402 also has access to overall interaction rules 505,through the third subsystem, that define how the model is to changebased on the inputs from the user, other users in multi-player games,and random chance. It is believed that such overall model and rules aretoo costly to send in real time as needed and/or are preferred not to bereleased to the client because of issues related to proprietaryinformation, cheating, and/or illicit copying.

A first message type related to gaze information is shown transmitted bythe client and received by the server much as already described withreference to FIG. 4A. A second message type is similar, but related toinput from the user control device and timing. This data is similarlystatus reporting, prediction based on local analysis, andcharacterization of trends. It relates to specific times, such asrelative to the client interaction or real time. A third message type,also similar to that already described with reference to FIG. 4A,relates to keys supplied and data descriptions (including model and ruledescriptions) that are optionally included, along with implicit and/orexplicit timing information, such as when the data that can be decryptedwith the key should be used. The fourth message type relates to thesupply of model and rule elements and related data identifiers anddescriptions. As with video, in some examples the model and even rulesfor the background or peripheral images and/or sound are substantiallyprotected, if at all, by means outside the present system. Some suchdata is optionally encrypted and know already to the client subsystemand/or sent in encrypted form in the fourth message; such data isrevealed when corresponding key material is revealed in the thirdmessage.

Turning now to FIG. 6, a combination functional, block, schematic andcryptographic protocol diagram is shown for exemplary privacy and accessprotected system embodiment in accordance with the teachings of thepresent invention. Clients 601 a-f, whether in the context of video ormore general interaction, preferably are supplied with keys and/or dataexpeditiously, to improve or maintain the user experience and also toreduce the level of extra data needed to accommodate contingenciesbefore the relevant data can arrive. Accordingly, it will be understoodthat in some situations one or more local servers 602 a-b that haverelatively low latency connections and high-quality of service withvarious clients will advantageous. As will be appreciated, however, suchlocal servers 602 are preferably unable to know at least some datarelated to client interactions because of privacy concerns. But theowners of content, for instance, want to be sure that they are paid forany authorization to view the content, which also allows the content tobe sold by third parties.

According to the figure, local server “A” 602 a has good channels withclients 601 a-c. In particular, server 602 a is shown communicating withclient “a” 601 a using a so-called public key shown as “K[t,10]”labeling the link; and with 602 c using key “K[t,8].” Now it will beunderstood that preferably all the communication between the two will beencrypted end-to-end, such as using that key in the relevant knownprotocols, in order to limit what eavesdroppers can learn. The localserver 602, however, also in effect authenticates the recipient of thecontent, and ensures that it goes to the correct recipient only, byusing the public key of the client. Each such public key will be takenas an authorization of the content owner for the client to receive thecontent. The keys are from the row with time t shown in solid lines;future time periods will use subsequent rows, such as those with keyshaving subscripts t+1 next, and then t+2, and so on. Now server “B” 602b also serves up content using the public keys, but it is believed atleast in some settings preferable that the content is only served to oneplace at one time; accordingly the servers are shown marking with thesolid disc those columns that they are serving. It will be appreciatedthat the subscripts are not correlated to the users in a unique way andappear substantially permuted per row. This is believed to improveprivacy. Moreover, when a user obtains the right to use particularcontent, a new entry is added; however, which one is new in a new row ishidden within that row. So by the device of refreshing to use a new row,the length of time a public key has been valid is believed no longerrevealed and its relationship to any key that drops of the list in alater row is similarly hidden.

In some examples each of plural content owners supplies there owncontent local server 602 (or one is supplied by someone they trust to doso). For convenience these are preferably housed and managed by similarinfrastructure per location, even though different content providers areincluded there. By controlling the devices that in effect issue the keysunlocking the data, the owner ensures that no full set of keys isreleased for a complete piece of content that is not diversified, or atleast that if this is done that the pieces are spread far and wide andpreferably some protected hardware is also included.

Turning now to FIG. 7, a combination functional, block, schematic andcryptographic protocol diagram is shown for exemplary privacy protectedauthenticator system embodiment in accordance with the teachings of thepresent invention. From a privacy perspective, any potential linkingbetween user and the particular content they obtain and their viewingdetails is preferably severed. As mentioned, it may also be desirable todivide the various functions in the system, particularly if the contentowner can verify that their interests are being protected. An examplesystem is described here in which the owner maintains accountinformation, but the payment function and the function of establishingthe authenticators is separated from the content owner. Moreover, theparticular example allows the client to choose the authenticators, notreveal them to the content owner in a way linkable to theaccount/payment from which they were obtained, and even influence theparticular order in which they appear in each time period row alreadydescribed with reference to FIG. 6. In the example, the owner can be theentity providing the “auth” message to the signer and/or the signer. Thetotal number of valid rows of the table should equal that which theowner has authorized and the owner can verify this by checking thenumber of valid columns in the rows of the table.

In operation, the client supplies money and/or some other thing(s) tothe accounts/payment function 701, who in turn provides theauthorization message to signer 702. This party enters into a blindsignature process with client 703, as indicated. The result is asignature that client 703 can unblind that authorizes input 704 to mixnetwork 705, shown in the example with several nested layers of publickey encryption over each ultimate table entry, as is known forregistering digital pseudonyms. The mixes process each of the threeinputs shown in a separate cascade, once the relevant time period isjust about to take effect. Thus permuted batch 706 shown to the left ofand as input to “mix 1” comprises so-called “onions” with identicalvalue of t. The entries in the final table 707 for FIG. 6 are shownfilled only for the particular use in this example, for clarity, and aswill be seen there is one per row and each is in a substantiallyunpredictable column.

Turning now to FIG. 8, a combination block, system, schematic, plan,flow and timeline diagram for a single user and server system withdisplay is shown for an exemplary temporary blindness aspect embodimentin accordance with the teachings of the present invention. For thisaspect, which optionally is combined with other aspects, the system isshown in FIG. 8A and the corresponding flow and timeline in FIG. 8B.Some differences are shown as illustrative of examples other than thoseshown in FIG. 2, such as “onscreen” user controls 802. Instead of a fulleye tracker functionality, eye watcher means 803 are shown, to indicatethat for this aspect recognizing and predicting temporary blindnessintervals for winks and saccades are of interest as part of this aspect,but the precise points of regards, optionally apart from gaze outsidethe field of view, may not be used in some examples. In one example,such features are detected and/or predicted by a camera and relatedcomputational structure.

Referring now to FIG. 8B, timing is indicated through an exampletimeline related to the aspect of FIG. 8A. In particular, the typicalvideo is shown as viewing interval 805 and the indication interval 806depicts the portion of the video during which a recognizable indicationis incorporated. Accordingly, the video stream is served up to theviewer until it is detected that a blindness interval is imminent andthen the indication interval, which incorporates the recognizableindication already mentioned, is included in the stream and/or byreference or code for local rendering. Once the indication has beenincluded and/or the eye watcher or other means communicates that theviewing interval should start, it does.

Turning now to FIG. 9, a combination block, system, schematic and plandiagram for a peer key management viewing system is shown in anexemplary embodiment in accordance with the teachings of the presentinvention.

A particular user 101 a and his or her user system 308 a, the “vieweruser,” will be assume to have a full but encrypted content version of aparticular title on a portable memory device (not shown for clarity),such as a disc, or has downloaded it in advance and/or has a download inprogress. Such content versions are preferably not all identical. Forinstance, portable memory devices are known to be created in volume moreefficiently in a limited number of different forms and these forms wouldbe distributed substantially randomly or so as to provide a suitabledistribution of the different forms. As another example, when the imagesare distributed online, each is preferably formed uniquely, usingwhatever diversification and unique keys. Economy of production andmanagement of versions generally, however, might tend towards re-use ofsome versions and/or parts being combined differently per version. Insome examples the data that would have been served up to user systems inother embodiments described here are each encrypted separately undersubstantially different keys.

In a preferred example operation, when a key server 309 is to allow usersystem 101 a to view particular content already substantially at thatuser system and/or on its way to that system, the key server provideskeys enabling this to a set of other user systems 903, 904, and 905, forexample, that are somehow effectively connected to user system 101 a.During viewing user system 901 requests keys as needed from the otheruser systems, 903, 904, 905 in the example. In some examples, each otheruser system has copies of the needed keys and supplies them asrequested; in other examples user systems get subsets of the keys. Itwill, however, be appreciated that requiring the user to contact morethan one user system/player in order to obtain any key is preferable asthis is believed to require an attacker to compromise more than one suchdevice. In some examples all of a set of user systems would need to becontacted to get the parts of keys, such as group elements, that wouldthen be combined, such as by a group operation, to form the needed key.In a preferred exemplary embodiment, however, the keys are divided bythe well-known so-called “secret sharing” technique among the usersystems so that typically most but not all such user systems arenecessary and sufficient to provide keys allowing the viewing user torecover the key needed to decrypt the stored encrypted content.

The user systems contributing key material preferably do so according tosome restrictions and also keep some records for provision to a serversuch as key server 309. In some examples the “firmware code” thatinduces this behavior in the user systems is fixed or updated onlyperiodically. In a preferred embodiment, the keys or “secret shares” aredownloaded to each user system server with software code or instructionsthat it is to use in handling the keys, requests, and reporting. Someaspects of user system operation, such as periodic broadcast of messagesindicating their presence and other aspects of their status such asconnectivity are preferably in updateable firmware.

During the viewing of the content the set members may be changed by thekey server to reduce exposure. For instance, periodically through theviewing process keys anticipated as needed for a window forward in timeare issues to one set. Later those for the next window are issuespreferably to another set, and so forth. The reporting by user systemspreferably influences the choice of such systems. Threat monitoring, asalready described, is anticipated in such embodiments.

This embodiment also generally applies to interactive viewing, such asof games and whatever interactive content. In other related embodimentssome or all of the user systems to which keys are provided are dedicateddevices used for this purpose, such as might be referred to assuper-nodes, and not actual user systems.

Turning now to FIG. 10, a combination block, system, schematic and plandiagram for a multi-viewer inset system is shown in an exemplaryembodiment in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.Two users or viewers are shown in the example, 101 a and 101 b, but itwill readily be appreciated how any number of viewers can beaccommodated. A single display 203 is shown as an example, though anynumber of displays can be accommodated, each preferably viewable byplural users or viewers 101. The example shows a common audio system2089 a-b, though audio is readily provided in whole or part by multiplesources, such as including individual devices per viewer, such asheadphones 1002.

First viewer 101 a is shown with a first blocker 1001 a that blockslight from display 203 at some times and not at other times so that onlyinsets intended for first viewer 101 a are shown to first viewer 101 a.Eye tracker 202 a is shown, in the example, but without limitation,attached to blocker 1001 a and the combination attached to what areshown for illustrative purposes substantially as headphones 1002. Thisattachment is in some examples detachable, such as by a clip, snap,Velcro, adhesive, or other mechanical attachment means. Tracker 202 adetermines the point of regard, preferably relative to display 203 orother displays as mentioned. In one example, this is by comparing thereflection on the eye of the image on screen 203 with the iris or otherrelated eye structure. The point of regard is optionally measuredrelative to tracker 202 a, such as by an IR source and glint, as areknown, and the relative position of the tracker assembly to screen 203determined by other means, such as gyroscope, IR transmitters,retro-reflective tags, radio frequency patterns or the like. In oneexemplary embodiment, tracker 202 a and blocker 1001 a are incommunication with one or more base stations 1004, whether attached topersons or objects, by radio or other electromagnetic energytransmissions. The second viewer 101 b similarly is shown fitted witheye tracker 202 b and blocker 1001 b. In the example, these areillustrated as attached or integrated with eyeglasses 103 or similarstructure worn by viewer 101 b.

In operation, display 203 shows peripheral views with insetssubstantially illuminated to a level low enough that the inset imagescan be integrated by viewer 101 a-b and perceived as filling in. In apreferred example, a complete image is shown to each viewer 101including the inset and peripheral portions. In another example, all theinset locations are black in a view that all viewers are unblocked forand the individual inset images are shown and unblocked for thecorresponding viewers. In still other examples, one or more viewers 101are provided with inset projectors (not shown for clarity) that fill inthe dark spots left in the displayed image and blockers are not used. Afurther variant has peripheral images supplied by viewer mounted systemsand the insets are provided by the common display 203, with or withoutblocking.

All manner of variations, modifications, equivalents, substitutions,simplifications, extensions, and so forth can readily be conceivedrelative to the present inventions by those of ordinary skill in theart. Many examples have already been given above with reference tovarious aspects of the inventive concepts disclosed.

While these descriptions of the present invention have been given asexamples, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the artthat various modifications, alternate configurations and equivalents maybe employed without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for displaying video content comprisedof a series of images comprising: a first supplying for render of atleast an inset first portion of at least a one of the images in at leasta substantially higher resolution than a second peripheral portion ofthe image; wherein the inset first portion is a region of the secondperipheral portion, the inset first portion selected to include afixation of a person viewing the displayed video content; a secondsupplying to at least a first viewer a first series of rendersresponsive to a series of fixations of the first viewer during a firstdisplaying so that the first viewer can appreciate the series of rendersas substantially naturally foveated and responsive to the fixations ofthe first viewer during the first displaying; and such that if saidseries of renders viewed by the first viewer were provided to a secondviewer for a second displaying, the series of renders makes itsubstantially likely that the second viewer will perceive a degradedquality in the series of renders, because the second viewer likely has asubstantially different sequence of fixations during the seconddisplaying than the first viewer had during said first displaying. 2.The method of claim 1, wherein the second supplying step includessupplying video information from a protected remote location.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the second supplying step includes supplyingvideo information from a protected local device.
 4. The method of claim1, wherein the second supplying step includes by supplying videoinformation from a plurality of at least temporally local devices. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein the second supplying step includessupplying encrypted content to at least one local protected device andlater selectively supplying corresponding keys for decrypting thecontent to the at least one protected local device and the at least oneprotected local device using the keys to decrypt the content earliersupplied.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second supplying stepincludes not supplying to at least some entities in case of detection ofsome patterns of usage.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the firstviewer and second viewer are equipped with virtually reality goggles. 8.The method of claim 7, wherein the virtual reality goggles do notprevent viewing surroundings of the first and/or second viewer.